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(NRK), with its key technology contribution through its Spatial Analyzer Soſtware. Hexagon acquired NRK in 2013. Te other is Intergraph, which came into the corporation in 2010.

Aerospace Industry, PLM, and Missing Metrology To understand why these companies are playing such

a large role in transforming Hexagon Metrology’s future offerings, it is important to understand the challenges their customers are facing. Aerospace manufacturers, especially commercial aircraſt builders, are ramping up production to meet escalating demand. Besides speeding up production, aircraſt OEMs need to source globally from a wide variety of suppliers, both to keep costs down and meet national offset requirements. Parts from these suppliers are shipped to central factories and used to assemble finished aircraſt, sometimes at a rate of one-and-a-half to two planes a day. Future rates will be even faster. Tis requires expensive, high-quality parts that fit together every time to assemble whole airplanes. In response, many in the industry are turn- ing to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools to manage product data, communicate with suppliers, and configure other details of such massive undertakings. Tere is only one problem: Metrology seems to have been

overlooked. Most PLM systems grew from product data man- agement systems that started out managing CAD data. Tese then grew in functionality to include manufacturing, service, even sales functions—but not metrology. “We interviewed a number of customers throughout the world and we found that, almost universally, there is no integration of metrology data into existing PLMs,” explained William Wilcox. He is vice president of business development soſtware for Hexagon Metrology, pro- vider of the widely used PC-DMIS. “Metrology is an island [in most instances], and they are really struggling with it,” he said

ment, Work Flow, Document Management, and Device Asset Management among others. Surprisingly, the Intergraph connection was a key piece

of the puzzle in creating MMS, according to Wilcox. “We used the SmartPlant Foundation from them,” he said. “It is a proven tool used by thousands of customers.” Tis engineer- ing information management system is a highly configurable, generic, relational database. It was tested in Process, Power, and Marine applications and is ISO 15926 compliant. “What we did was take this raw product, configured it especially for industrial metrology and added some modules where we needed to round out the [functionality],” explained Wilcox. Wilcox was quick to point out that MMS is also intended to

work with existing, traditional PLMs, with some tailoring. For instance, CAD data with attached GD&#38;T might be fed to MMS from such systems. “What MMS does is it allows our customer to have a layer of security around their metrology process while formalizing it,” said Wilcox. “With MMS you cannot use the wrong part program or make a change without approval.” Wilcox also notes that this is a big step for Hexagon and its

customers. “When we discuss this with customers, it can be a little overwhelming,” he remarked. Tat is why Hexagon is offering MMS as a series of optional modules, with only parts of MMS available in 2013. Wilcox reported that a Device Asset Management tool is being installed at a customer [as of this writing]. “Other modules that will be available towards the end of [2013] include Centralized Storage Management, Re- ports, and Document Management Control,” he said. Inspec- tion and Virtual Assembly modules will be available in 2014.

ed manufacturing technology, may be one of the more exciting future applications. Virtual assembly is used, for example, in the

Rather than only determine whether a part is in spec or not— a go/no go decision, “Spatial Analyzer tries to determine if we can make it fit.”

in that interview. He explained problems that Hexagon Metrol- ogy uncovered in their research include measuring new parts with old measuring programs, trouble configuring consistent workflows, or keeping track of inspection reports.

A New Category: PLM for Metrology Since existing PLM developers had inadvertently ignored

it, Hexagon is inventing one solely for metrology. It is a prod- uct they call the Metrology Management System, or MMS. MMS has a number of modules that populate and then access data from a central repository of metrology data. According to Wilcox these will include modules such as Change Manage-

116 Aerospace &#38; Defense Manufacturing 2013

Boeing 787 build process where embedded metrology systems like laser scanners measure “as built” conditions between parts to ensure fit. Laser trackers are then used to measure distances in automated tooling systems that mate aircraſt parts—think wings to fuselage—more accurately and faster than previous manual systems. Tis process is oſten referred to as metrology- assisted assembly (or manufacturing). It could be a key enabler in commercial aircraſt companies ramping up production even further. Virtual assembly, as its name implies, is the simulation of this assembly off-line on a computer. Enter the NRK acquisition into Hexagon’s vision of the future. Teir Spatial Analyzer soſtware forms a core part of this